Highlights from day 2 of National Science Week
Researchers, experts, and other interesting talent available for interview around the country.
TAS: Top Gear star James May pulls into Hobart during his ‘Explorers – The Age of Discovery’ tour.
VIC: Why the gut-immune-brain axis is beautiful and vital – images captured by Melbourne researchers.
ACT: Dancers with disability explore bee science through performance in Canberra.
NSW: Indigenous seaweed harvesting, natural dying, bush cordial, and a life-sized dinosaur at Science in the Scrub at Western Sydney Parklands.
VIC: Outsmart AI and see stars of Japan’s ‘Cat Heaven Island’ respond to their own video images in Science Gallery Melbourne’s DISTRACTION exhibition.
QLD: VR farming, AgBots, and strawberry sundaes at The Ekka.
TAS: What do reflection, light and physics have to do with chocolate? Find out at Chocolate Winterfest in Latrobe.
SA: Bird spotters and bug catchers wanted to document ‘proof of life’ in Renmark’s restored floodplains.
SA/National: Touring troupe of quantum scientists and dark matter hunters in Adelaide today.
Also today:
- QLD: Day 2 of Magnetic Island’s three-day ‘Nature’s Blueprint’ immersion: science, regenerative design and sustainability
- NSW: Art of endangered birds and environmental activism continues in Wyangala
- WA: Science camp for deaf teens at Edith Cowan University
Coming up tomorrow:
National Science Week 2025 runs from 9 to 17 August.
Visit ScienceWeek.net.au/events to find more stories in your area.
More about the event highlights
Top Gear’s James May explores the age of discovery – Hobart, TAS
British television presenter and award-winning journalist James May is coming to Australia this National Science Week.
In ‘Explorers – The Age of Discovery with James May live’, he will present a live theatre show bringing to life the stories of the extraordinary explorers who traversed deserts, scaled mountains, and sailed into the unknown.
Live on stage, thanks to Lateral Events, he will reveal the adventures of human exploration, from Ice Age migration to space travel.
James May is best known as a co-presenter of motoring programs Top Gear and The Grand Tour, and as the host of Our Man in… TV series.
Sunday 10 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/explorers-the-age-of-discovery-james-may/hobart/
Limited media availability. Enquiries: info@lateralevents.com
Dancers with disability pollinate science and inclusion – Canberra, ACT
Explore the importance of bees for ecology, biodiversity and our food train through ‘BuzzACT’, a dance-and-science show for children.
Canberra’s inclusive dance performance group, The Chamaeleon Collective, comprises 70% of artists living with disability, chronic illness and/or PTSD.
Launched in 2020, The Chamaeleon Collective, is part of The Stellar Company, founded by dance artist/choreographer/producer, Liz Lea. The initiative provides professional mentoring and career pathways for emerging artists with and without disability.
Sunday 10 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/buzzz-act-2/gungahlin/
Media enquiries: Liz Lea, director@thestellarcompany.com
Liz Lea is available for media interviews.
Meet a dinosaur (and others) at Lizard Log – Abbotsbury, NSW
Say hello to Ginger the life-sized Australovenator dinosaur, catch bugs, discover Indigenous seaweed harvesting and taste bush cordial.
‘Science in the Scrub’ returns to Lizard Log in Western Sydney Parklands. This year it features an Aboriginal science village, explosive experiments, space science, pop-up Museum of Fire, and a line-up of physicists, biologists and zoologists.
Sunday 10 August. Event details:
www.scienceweek.net.au/event/science-in-the-scrub-2025/abbotsbury/
Media enquiries: media@gsp.nsw.gov.au
Artists find meaning in digital distraction – Melbourne, VIC
See how Japanese cats respond to videos of their own image on ‘Cat Island’.
Outsmart AI in ‘Deviation Game’, drawing things that only humans understand.
Join a comedic televised set, ‘Pledge Drive for Attention’.
University of Melbourne’s Science Gallery explores how we can ‘harness the cacophony of digital content and find meaning within it’ through interactive games, play and technology in its free ‘DISTRACTION’ exhibition.
Highlights include:
- Deviation Game, by UK-based Studio Playfool, invites you to draw things that humans can understand but an image-recognition AI can’t.
- Cat Island, by Jen Valender, merges animal colour perception research from University of Melbourne’s Stuart-Fox Lab with technology that explores how cats on Japan’s Ainoshima Island (aka ‘Cat Heaven Island’) respond to digital stimuli, such as screen videos of their own image.
- Melbourne artist Xanthe Dobbie’s Unoriginal Sin focuses on the concept of ‘mean images’ (coined by artist Hito Steyerl) in an immersive video installation.
- US artist and Institute for Comedic Inquiry founder Laura Allcorn’s Pledge Drive for Attention opens the door to a comedic set based on a televised pledge drive, exploring how our attention spans are zapped by digital distractions.
From Saturday 26 July. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/distraction/parkville/
Media enquiries: Katrina Hall, kathall@ozemail.com.au or 0421 153 046.
VR farming, AgBots, and strawberry sundaes – Royal Queensland Show, Brisbane, QLD
Discover them all at the Ekka. Gumboots optional.
Children of all ages can join the ‘Ekka Learning Trail’ – a self-guided tour that showcases Australian Curriculum linked educational activities grounded in AgScience topics.
Saturday 9 – Sunday 17 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-royal-queensland-show-ekka/bowen-hills/
Media enquiries: Veronica Carew, vcarew@rna.org.au or 0408 323 631 and Kelly Hawke, khawke@rna.org.au or 0438 340 989.
Microscopic beauty of the gut-immune-brain axis – Melbourne, VIC
Some 90 per cent of chronic health conditions are influenced by how cells and neurons communicate across our gastrointestinal, immune and nervous systems.
Researchers from Monash University’s Gastroenterology, Immunology and Neuroscience (GIN) program have captured the gut-immune-brain axis in stunning imagery, as documented in the curation of a free public exhibition ‘Big Microcosmos’.
Their research focuses on gastrointestinal, immune and nervous systems as one interconnected system, recognising that single organ/system investigation often falls short in addressing complexities of widespread health issues from allergies to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurological conditions (autism spectrum disorders, chronic pain, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease).
Friday 8 August – Friday 15 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/big-microcosmos/melbourne/
Media enquiries: Monash University media team, media@monash.edu or 03 9903 4840
Researchers available for media interviews:
- Immunologist Prof Benjamin Marsland, neuroscientist Prof Richelle Mychasiuk and gastroenterologist/dietitian Dr Emma Halmos – GIN co-heads
- Dr Juliana Silva – GIN program manager
- PhD students and researchers whose microscopy images feature in the exhibition are also available on request.
Pictured: Mucus: the first gatekeeper of the gut, captured by Aidil Zaini.
Chocolate’s sweet science – Latrobe, TAS
What do reflection, light and physics have to do with chocolate? Why do some chocolate bars develop white spots? Is chocolate actually bad for dogs?
Chocolate lover and food scientist Chloë Nelson answers these questions and more in a series of talks at Tasmania’s Chocolate Winterfest.
Chloë started her professional career working as a research scientist and did further studies in engineering. She also trained as a chocolatier at the world-renowned Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School.
Sunday 10 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-science-of-sweet-creations-4/latrobe/
Media enquiries: Michelle Dutton, enquiries@chocolatewinterfest.com.au or (03) 6426 444.
The art of endangered birds & environmental activism – Wyangala, NSW
Exploring endangered birds through drawing, collage and wet collodion photography will be one of the highlights of a series of workshops, talks and exhibitions focused on environmentalism during ERTHWRX25.
The multi-day event celebrates 10 years of science, arts and cultural programming across Central West NSW, and also features Wiradjuri night sky stories with cultural knowledge holder Doug Sutherland.
The initiative is organised by the CORRIDOR project (a not-for-profit multidisciplinary arts and cultural organisation) and Orange Cowra Cabonne Science Hub, bringing together community, scientists, cultural knowledge holders, artists, architects, ecologists, and academics.
Key topics include:
- Biodiversity conservation and regenerative farming
- Cultural museum collections and First Nations astronomy
- Global wildlife disease and planetary systems
- Soil health, mycology and earth sciences
- Circular economies, water sustainability and renewable energy
Saturday 9 August & Sunday 10 August
www.scienceweek.net.au/event/erthwrx25/wyangala/
Media enquiries: Phoebe Cowdery, phoebe@thecorridorproject.org or 0413 910 697
The CORRIDOR project based near Cowra is a multidisciplinary arts organisation providing a platform for education and cultural pursuits to explore the science, technology and Indigenous knowledge of the Central West. The lead partner in the Orange Cowra Cabonne Science Hub, the CORRIDOR project presents a diverse program of art/science engagement experiences for the community.
Bird spotters and bug catchers wanted – Renmark, SA
Renmark Irrigation Trust is seeking citizen scientists to help document birds and bugs making a comeback to restored Murray River floodplains.
Participants will look for native woodland and wetland birds (Sunday 10 August) and learn how to collect, identify and preserve insects for Renmark’s first floodplain invertebrate record (Saturday 16 August).
Sunday 10 August and Saturday 16 August. Event details: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/birds-and-bugs-wetlands-wonders-of-renmarks-restored-floodplains/renmark/
Media enquiries: Freya Harrihill, fharrihill@rit.org.au or 0404 344 003.
Renmark Irrigation Trust ecologist Freya Harrihill, who will lead the activities, is available for media interviews.
Quantum Year goes off-road – Adelaide tonight and touring Australia’s cities and regions
Meet dark matter hunters and quantum experts at events across Australia.
To celebrate Quantum Year, the National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip will tour pubs and schools in regional and remote communities in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales – and run events in capital cities between 4 August and 20 August.
Communities will also get the chance to trial the Dark Matter Hunter computer game, play with 3D quark puzzles, a muon detector, gravity well, diamond earring-based magnetic field sensor, and quantum computing chips.
Dark matter accounts for 84 per cent of all the matter in the Universe, but we don’t yet know what it is. Australia is a key player in the quest to find out. Quantum technologies are crucial in the hunt for dark matter and they’re already used in smart phones and cars, medical imaging, manufacturing, and navigation. But today’s technologies capture only a small fraction of the potential of quantum physics.
Adelaide pub trivia night tonight: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/pub-trivia-with-a-twist-of-science-2/north-adelaide/
Elsewhere: Monday 4 August – Wednesday 20 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/the-national-quantum-dark-matter-road-trip-first-leg-port-hedland-to-perth/
Media enquiries: Fleur Morrison, fleur.morrison@unimelb.edu.au or 0421 118 233.
Multiple experts involved with different legs of the tour are available for media interviews
What is Australia’s most underrated animal? – national online
Do weird and wonderful Aussie creatures get the attention they deserve? For Science Week 2025, ABC Science wants Australians to cast their vote for Australia’s most underrated animal.
Not the usual cuddly crowd-pleasers, but the ugly, the annoying and the lesser-known critters that are often over-looked, under-conserved and underrated.
“We are trying to do the impossible here and rate what may be unrateable, vote on what may be un-findable, but most of all, find out as much as we can about animals which live their entire lives outside the spotlight of popular consciousness,” says Dr Ann Jones from ABC Radio National podcast What the Duck?!
The search for Australia’s most underrated animal will be decided on Friday 15 August. Images here.
Friday 1 August – Friday 15 August: To find out more and vote, go towww.abc.net.au/underrated.
For interviews with Dr Ann Jones, contact Amy Reiha, ABC Publicity, Reiha.amy@abc.net.au or 0404 026 039
For interviews with other animal experts and science communicators, contact:
Tanya Ha, tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863
Shelley Thomas, shelley@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0416 377 444
Space farmers wanted – national online
It’s Day 530 on the moon base and you’re eating packaged slop again… until a delivery of nutrient-enhanced microgreens arrives from Earth.
Your mission is to sustainably grow and harvest edible plants in an extreme environment. But first you need to learn the basics of plant biology, food chemistry and farming approaches that minimise water, energy and resource use.
The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, headquartered in Adelaide, is supersizing its mission to develop out-of-this-world future foods by enlisting public participation in ‘Grow 4 Launch’ experiments.
Participants will receive a microgreens kit complete with seeds, hydroponics gear and test tools, alongside guidance on how to alter plant sensory traits (colour, taste, smell and texture) and investigate conditions that help sustainable growth.
The project also invites participants to submit recipes, results and ideas for a Spacefood Cookbook which will also feature contributions from astronauts, nutritionists and chefs.
Online from 9 August: www.scienceweek.net.au/event/grow-4-launch-grow-test-imagine-the-future-of-food-in-space/
Media enquiries: Lieke Van Der Hulst, lieke.vanderhulst@adelaide.edu.au or 0449 846 067.
Plants for Space researchers available for interview in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth.
About National Science Week
National Science Week is Australia’s annual opportunity to meet scientists, discuss hot topics, do science and celebrate its cultural and economic impact on society – from art to astrophysics, chemistry to climate change, and forensics to future food.
First held in 1997, National Science Week has become one of Australia’s largest festivals. Last year about 3 million people participated in more than 2,000 events and activities.
The festival is proudly supported by the Australian Government, CSIRO, the Australian Science Teachers Association, and the ABC.
In 2025 it runs from Saturday 9 to Sunday 17 August. Event details can be found at www.scienceweek.net.au.